It’s a sad day here in Virginia. Virginians just elected a Republican governor, the first Republican to hold the governor’s mansion since Bob McDonnell from 2010-2014. McDonnell left office in a storm of criminal investigations and federal indictments for corruption. I’m pretty sure it will be the same with Glenn Youngkin, a mini-Trump who won the office on unsubtle racist dog whistles, white supremacy and insurrection. For what it’s worth, Terry McAuliffe – the former Democratic governor who was running for a second non-consecutive term – was and is a mediocre candidate. But still, statewide elections in Virginia have trended pure blue since McDonnell’s mess. But here we are.
Let’s also be fair about something else: the local, state and national media were happy about this Virginia result. They’ve been writing McAuliffe’s political obituary all year and it’s clear no one learned jacksh-t from the Trump years. The media was gleefully playing along when Youngkin played fast and loose with just how much of a Trump Nazi he is. Still, with all of the focus on Virginia, a lot of reporters missed the New Jersey election:
Republican Glenn Youngkin pulled off the upset in Virginia, defeating Terry McAuliffe in the governor’s race. And in perhaps and even bigger stunner in New Jersey, Republican Jack Ciatarelli leads by about 1,200 votes out of 2.3 million over incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who had been favored.
The New Jersey race is likely headed for a recount, but just the fact that the election is this close shows how much energy Republicans had on their side heading into Tuesday night. Both results are sending shockwaves through a Democratic political establishment that has had little good news over the last few months.
In that time, the delta variant and prices have surged, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was chaotic, and Democrats’ agenda on Capitol Hill stalled. While the economy has continued to recover and coronavirus cases are declining again, we are a long way from President Biden’s “summer of freedom.”
All of it has added up to a decline in Biden’s poll numbers and political capital. The cherry on top is Democrats losing an election in a state Biden won by 10 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election and being essentially tied in a state Biden won by 16.
You would have thought that Trumpkin won in a landslide. He won by less than 70,000 votes! And it rained all f–king day in most of the state, which depressed turnout on Election Day. I mean, while this is bad news for Democrats, it doesn’t follow that this is overwhelmingly great news for Republicans. And in case anyone wants to hear something ominous, this is what Donald Trump said last night: “The MAGA movement is bigger and stronger than ever before.” Pass.
Anyway, congrats to us here in Virginia. I imagine Youngkin’s first task will be reinstalling all of those Confederate statues.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Oh shit.
Manchin and Sinema fcked Virginia and New Jersey. Democrats would have won in a landslide if infrastructure and reconciliation had passed.
No. Terry running instead of one of the 2 progressive Black women, is what cost them the election. Also Terry and co had no platform, he had a hard time getting elected the first time and he never forced youngkin to state his beliefs. Sloppily ran, condescending towards Black Virginians, and no actual work done to improve the state. Dems need to stop being weak and nice
@KFG, if you are stating that a Black progressive female would have won – I have to respectfully disagree. VA is backwards and very racist once outside the major urban areas. Look at the voting percentages in surrounding counties outside the city of Richmond. I personally would have loved to see Jennifer McClellan on the ticket. One drive through rural VA shows how red the state is; which is mind blowing that VA went blue in presidential election.
I agree that Terry had a very weak platform. I think he may have hinged bets on being a previous Gov to help him. And yes, Dems in general need to be stronger. That is one thing I give Republicans credit: they stick together come hell or high water.
Oh BS. Look up who won the mayoral race in Buffalo. This country has a massive right wing problem, and a massive misogynism problem, and the latter applies to all races. So no, a progressive woman of color in VA would have lost by ten points.
I’m mad at the world, not at the posters, BTW.
According to a report on NPR I heard today, the turnout of the 18-24 age group was only 70% of what it was for Biden. According to NPR, the 18-24 age group then to vote Democrat.
@Seraphina, I live in Virginia. Foy would have won. Terry is a shit candidate and literally said nothing of merit. The state dem leadership is diet republican and honestly, few black and other POC participated in the election bc we don’t like Terry he effed over minorities when he was first elected and this time he helped get rid of Ayala who is very progressive and had a lot of support.
Say what you will, this guy will be good business for all types of media until he leaves in fours years or earlier depending on the scandals and/or charges.
Republicanism is a religion. People are looking for ways to act against their best interests. Oh, and racism.
Makes me really want to move somewhere else in the world. But is anywhere else any better?
I wish I could move to a different country. My Republican sister is like “then get out!” I would renounce my citizenship here on the spot and pay all those legal fees if I could go into Canada, Emea, APJ, or pretty much any other developed nation which are all more progressive than the US.
right? If it was something that I could actually do, would seriously think about doing it. I dream of nationalized health care!
In Canada you could become a dual citizen, but it means filing US tax returns every year. We’d welcome you though! Watch for the province, several of us are dealing with bad Conservative governments. This is a global phenomenon.
No, let’s make the Republicans get out. Let’s start pointing out that this is not “a culture war.” This is a fight for the present and the long-term future against a straightup racist, misogynistic Christian theocratic party. If we don’t stop them, the imperfect US will become a living nightmare instead of stumbling toward something better, which is what you get with the only viable alternative we have–the Democrats.
@NCwoman – are you based in NC? If so, are a look what your own state legislature just voted for vis-a-vis even more extreme partisan gerrymandering that the Democratic governor does not have the power to veto. John Roberts himself blessed this. Sadly, the only thing that stands in the way of the US descent into full blown fascism is the hope that there are enough registered Republicans who will vote against their party because they understand the dangers of Trumpublicanism and don’t relish the idea of turning the US into 1930s Germany
I mean, a fair few places are better than the United States depending on the indicators you look at. And the idea that most places are a much of a muchness isn’t true. To use a pandemic metaphor, far-right nonsense may be a global virus, but that doesn’t mean everywhere has outbreaks as bad as in the US.
I was surprised by how much of a difference it made moving from one commonwealth country to another in terms of opportunity, equality, progressiveness and general quality of life – and that’s two countries with similar history, culture, values, economies and politics.
Given the size, diversity and political polarization in the US, I wouldn’t be surprised if simply moving states or even counties could make a difference!
I just drove through Virginia this weekend and I gotta say, this doesn’t seem that surprising based off that. the state didn’t seem very blue to me.
this is definitely depressing, and of course now the narrative will be that the midterms are shot and Trump will win in 2024.
I wish the Democrats would stop infighting and wasting the political capital they have. it’s pathetic. also, everyone is currently blaming Biden for inflation and gas prices and the legit shortage, even though these aren’t even unique to America (at least according to my coworker who lives in Quebec).
I am so stupid for being surprised every time. And I absolutely hate how dumb Democrats are at politics. The purity tests and infighting makes me so ragey! There is a bigger mess and more danger if they can just stop trying to prove how right they are… we are all on the same team here and we are about to lose democracy as we know it. We all need to unite behind Biden and give him a couple of big political wins or our freedoms as totally out the window come 2022 and 2024. I’ve had it.
As with everywhere else in the world, the cities in VA are quite blue and the rural areas are more conservative. If you weren’t in northern VA, Richmond, or Hampton Roads (where the majority of people live), it’s a bunch of Trump crazies.
The state isn’t THAT blue…. there are blue parts in Richmond, Charlottesville, and of course NoVA but the rest of the state is red. They vote against their best interests. I have been in Southern Virginia many times. They somehow ended up with the most beautiful part of the state… which sucks… the people don’t leave. They don’t know anyone but their neighbors. They have never met a minority (many times). They live in their bubble and never want it to change.
I’m from a small town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in southern Virginia, and I now live in Roanoke, the largest city in the southwestern part of the state. Your assessment isn’t wrong, but there is more going on here. I also used to work in Virginia Democratic politics, and the state party organization has been full of self-congratulatory jerks that habitually shoot themselves in the foot for years. One of my boss’s favorite sayings was that the party tends to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And it’s true.
There was real momentum in the Commonwealth to elect new faces, including an unprecedented number of women vying for the gubernatorial mansion and statewide offices after it was revealed that the governor and AG wore blackface in their youths and the AG was an alleged sexual assailant who called his accuser a “b*tch” in a Senate subcommittee meeting. The party squandered this momentum and some really exciting potential candidates to basically anoint McAuliffe.
@Mama, very correct. I wrote above, a drive through the neighboring counties of Richmond – dead red. Signs EVERYWHERE painting a sea of red. We still see Trump signs up in some counties and my kids snicker and ask: They do know he lost, right????
@SUSIEQ
I never thought I would see Ronaoke mentioned here! I was born and lived in the county but lived in the city when I was teen before I moved out of state. I am sad to hear the local dems still haven’t gotten it together.
Yes gas is expensive in Quebec this year. Food, i don’t really get the stories about it being expensive. I have a few places just in my own borough that I can constantly find either cheap veg and fruit or cheap meat or cheap dairy. I find it odd that people are complaining about it on Reddit Montréal that meat has gone up. 1. Why do you need so much meat
2. Amazing prices are still there to be found here. You probably went to the most convenient place and expected the price to stay the same forever. I have met some men (coworkers) who really do not understand how to grocery shop effectively. Shop around, look at the weight of what you are buying and make those stores stay competitive. That’s just Montréal where 1/2 the population of Quebec lives, other places in the province could maybe food desserts/expensive though. Our healthcare is hit and miss here. My American relatives are in a privileged class so they do have much better healthcare than me overall. I like that I don’t have to pay, obviously, but somethings are very hard to access and have years long waiting list. Somethings are very easy to access and some facilities are quite nice. The workers are pretty nice. A lot of other Americans may have a worse healthcare situation than us in Quebec I’m sure.
I often think about how we don’t usually compare apples to apples when talking about the differences between US and CA health care
My guess would be that wealthy Americans receive speedier access and glossier services, but roughly equivalent quality of care to wealthy Canadians, who it’s worth noting can also pay to jump the line via premium telehealth, concierge/executive clinics, private “care coordination”, popping across the border etc.
Lower-middle and poorer Americans probably spend more for worse outcomes overall than their peers in Canada, even if they receive speedier access and better services, simply because the spectre of medical debt makes people put off routine or even urgent care
It’s the white women in the suburbs who think that each school their little Paisleigh or Claxton attends belongs to them and that they should be able to control the teachers down to the most minute subjects. They took that stupid quote about parents not controlling the curriculum and went nuts with it.
These Lula Roe selling soccer moms are bringing white nationalism to school boards with a vengeance. Clayton and Payskeigh shouldn’t have to learn about slavery and Jim Crow, but also shouldn’t be punished for racially terrorizing black classmates.
Our school board meetings have been an entertaining shit show. It’s hard to believe what is going on in town
I am just ill. Your comment about the schools is right on. We live in the era where one stupid comment writes your political legacy. Allen and macaca is a perfect example. I am a Virginia teacher. Sad day in Fairfax County.
He definitely gave the wrong message about parents and curriculum and should have phrased it differently. Yes, parents can have a say on what they would like to see taught, but needs to be done in a proper way. I’m a retired teacher and when ever my district looked at curriculum, committees were established and parents, teachers, administrators and students were all represented on the committee. NO parent has a right to come in and demand certain curriculum be taught or eliminated.
This. The GOP started a culture war that was fueled by their right wing media juggernaut. We just can’t compete with that. And it sure didn’t help that McAuliffe was woefully unprepared for that messaging battle.
Correct. And I have no clue what TM was thinking. Maybe he was thinking the same I was thinking – that it would be blue. Were we wrong.
School boards and local education policy have been viewed as safe, boring, and relatively low impact by most casual voters up until recently in most of the US. Most school board elections are in the spring elections where turnout is lower unless there’s some primary also on the ballot.
Most voters, both parents and non-parents, don’t care much about policy set by their local school boards unless it affects their property taxes. Prior to this year, the only real engagement that I’ve seen in the multiple states and school boards I’ve lived in is when there’s a referendum on the ballot that would raise property taxes. Those shouldn’t be nearly as common or frequent as they’ve seem to become. The reality is that those are the results of states reducing the amount of direct funding to local districts and making them more reliant on local property taxes. I voted against the last one where I live in Wisconsin because I didn’t think that the district’s plan to tack another addition onto a high school with multiple additions was a good long term solution, especially considering that it was at the time the largest proposed dollar wise in state history.
I’m in Wisconsin, where school boards have become contentious messes over the last couple years for various reasons. It’s from all aspects of the political spectrum, including groups wanting police out of schools where I live to the “concerned” parents who have no idea what Critical Race Theory actually is complaining about their kids learning about the less exceptional side of US history. Public health measures, including mask policies and covid safety protocols are also issues. The districts that still are meeting virtually have avoided some of the chaos and disruption.
I also really wonder how many of these “concerned” white nationalist parents know how they are being manipulated. School board meeting had the reputation of being not that interesting and of interest to people really invested in the area, for various reasons, including transparency and interest in promoting open government. These people protesting both curriculum and public safety policy wouldn’t know which meeting to swarm. Most districts have an open meeting of electors, anyone who lives in the district, in the fall to set policy and guidelines. Most meetings have low attendance and are procedural. In Kenosha in September, theirs was swarmed by conservative and reactionary residents who set policies including board members not getting paid for virtual meetings and reducing the tax levy for the upcoming fiscal year. These people were not your usual good government and transparency people. They wouldn’t have know to attend unless they were being directed to by far right groups.
I’m concerned about the GOP started culture wars because there’s so much disinformation out there. I work in higher education, have a good education and keep up with current events and I don’t really have any clear idea what CRT really is. If someone like me who is well educated and open minded doesn’t have a clear sense, then some of these people have no idea what they are talking about. Also in Wisconsin, the GOP dominated legislature is attempting to get through a bill that would ban teaching CRT and severely reduce what equity and diversity training could be done in the public sector. A good summation of this bill is it’s a list of words and phrases that hurt the feelings of white males who don’t want change. If we didn’t have a Democratic governor who seems to take great joy in vetoing waste of time GOP legislation, it would have a crippling effect on education, both k to 12 and higher ed, in Wisconsin.
Upvote for the dumb names.
I have a friend who moved to Richmond for a job mid-pandemic and am feeling really bad for him this morning.
Youngkin spent the last few weeks of the campaign running on racial resentment and fear of trans women as sexual predators.
This is what Virginia (yes, even Northern Virginia) wanted. They even installed a batshit Candace Owens clone as Lieutenant Governor.
Also, kiss reproductive rights and voting rights goodbye in the state.
Jersey girl here. I was shocked to wake up this morning to find Ciatareilli, the R candidate, in the lead. Some of the major cities still have votes to be counted and it is likely that D candidate, Murphy, will still win. But, my god, this was too close in what is typically a reliably blue state. We all have to get our act together before 2022, Snapping defeat from the jaws of victory is what Ds seem to do best most of the time.
Same here in NJ, I was hoping to wake up to see it decided, I think it will still go to Murphy, but I agree it is way too close for comfort.
Me, too. I am a nervous wreck and hoping like hell Murphy pulls it off. If it’s close, I hope there is a recount. Any ideas on how you volunteer for that? I live in a very republican town and don’t trust them to be honest.
Not sure how to volunteer for a re-count, but I would think you can contact the state board of elections for info.
NJ.com has Murphy up by a very slight amount at 10 am, with some vote by mail ballots to still count. There’s been a pretty strong push from progressives for VBM in the past few years, so I’m hoping they are heavily favoring Murphy. I think it’s going to be a little while before it’s final though.
ATNJ is a good group to help with VBM, progressive outreach and other stuff like ballot drop box accessibility, if you want to get involved for the next election.
@Lucy. Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. Things are looking good for Murphy at the moment.
White supremacy is a helluva drug.
I’m sorry. I am so deeply and completely sorry
Thank you from a Virginia resident even though your comment may have been for the NJ resident. I was so upset yesterday I was unable to comment.
When Glen goes to “service” the Donald, he had best not be using my tax dollars. Just saying.
100%. And people really need to realize that supporting white supremacy isn’t just marching with tiki torches. Your best friend that you had since you were 7, that nice neighbor who cuts your grass, and that Aunt who volunteers at the church can all support candidates that have policies that oppress other people. We have to acknowledge unfortunately that there are a lot of people that may be sympathetic, but don’t really care if an issue doesn’t impact them. And I disagree it’s a messaging issue, you can’t outmessage white supremacy. What are you going to tell these people to secure their vote, that won’t massively turn off marginalized groups/anti-racist people?
Perfectly said, Dee.
This just shows, yet again, that Republicans are, far and away, dramatically better at building a media narrative and dancing it all the way to the finish line. They know what sells, what makes a good headline, and they exploit that expertly.
Overall, it was not a good night for Dems, and especially progressives. Minneapolis rejected police reform, Seattle largely rejected its progressive candidates, etc. The party as a whole is going to have to look at itself and try to figure out how it moves forward and what it wants to be. It looks pretty clear that they are going to have to make tough decisions about what issues they want to champion moving forward.
They also have a full time propaganda machine in Fox News along with OAN and the Sinclair network. The democrats do not have a media machine on that same level. MSNBC does not blindly push lies 24/7 to promote Dem ideas. The right wing media propaganda is insidious and can get to a lot more people.
This is what I was going to say. We haven’t done a thing to counter their media juggernaut, which helped get Trump in the White House and we will continue to lose because the media war is completely assymetrical.
Progress will never be completely linear. Virginia has come a long way since 1960 when the school systems shutdown rather allow my parents to go to school with White kids. We have to keep working. Keep positive. Look out for one another. Do not accept the self-indulgence of despair.
Michelle, thank you for the positive energy. I needed to hear that reminder this morning. Progress feels painfully slow, and sometimes feels regressive, but it is never linear and I need to remember that.
Bless you for keeping your head up and encouraging others!
“Do not accept the self-indulgence of despair.” YES. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe this is the wake up call democrats needed. Its sad it has come to this. But the republiCON strategy is to focus on state elections and control the state legislatures and the governorships. Then they can hamstring the president through redistricting and electing nutcases to Congress.
If Trump’s election wasn’t enough of a wakeup call, I can’t imagine anything else that would be.
I think people figured that episode was behind them by ousting Trump. This is the reminder that these folks are not giving up, especially on the state and local levels.
And my (tail end of it) boomer self says this is why democrats need to move as one on the big stuff. Have all the debates you want behind closed doors but move as one. And realize you won’t get every damn thing you want. But you will get zero and be set back to the 1950’s if you keep stomping your feet about perfect candidates and your personal issue. Change always yields backlash. President Obama did great things even w a republicans congress. We had a two year window to get this right and this is the last warning shot. Someone didn’t save the corner of the environment you care about? The other team is going to pave it. You didn’t get the perfect childcare/tuition free/friendly policy for your particular situation ? Tough, the other team will have you unable to get a credit card in your own name w/o your husbands permission in no time. This is not the time for third party candidates or earnest votes for people who have zero chance of winning. You can do that at the local school board level. (But make sure you have enough like minded folks voting with you. )It’s time for everyone to put on their big girl pants and look at the damage that was done and fight to keep it from getting worse.
The republicans are using Trump
Mania to get what they want. It’s no joke.
I really disagree. Women already have cards and debt. You think this guy is going to tell the bank to do what exactly? Banks are not against having more people indebted to them! Politicians (many of them) on both side are more into lobbyists issues than they actual care about social issues and social changes. They talk about social changes to get people emotionally involved and NOT thinking about the corporate interests. Since this guy is GOP I bet one of his big lobbyists is fossil fuel, also probably some corporations that do their plastic products in China, polluting the earth and want low taxes. So he focused on parents’ concerns about curriculum and I bet he focused on trans rights too, those are the emotional issues this year.
At the risk of sounding like a magat conspiracy theorist… I don’t buy it. It’s been my pet theory for years that Republicans are changing votes where they can. I mean we’re going to have to live with this because Democrats just let it slide no matter how egregiously opposite the outcome is from what is expected. It doesn’t matter if the Republican outperforms their polling by nearly double digits (as several Republican senators did in 2020), nothing to see here! Nope, no sirree!
As a further example, I don’t think Trump won in 2016. I think Russia absolutely changed enough votes in those three states to give Trump a win with an asterisk (winning the electoral college but losing the popular vote by 3 mill). I think the Republicans changed enough votes to reduce Biden’s actual win to make the curious Democratic senate losses make sense.
I’m sick of having to live in this GOP hellscape of stupid people. I’m sick of the media always carrying the GOP’s water. I am sick of obvious GOP malfeasance barely being covered while Democrats actually working hard is mocked and degraded. I’m sick of Democrats being ineffective messagers. I’m sick of Republicans cheating. I’m sick of the whole stupid thing.
There is NO POLITICAL ARGUMENT IN THE WORLD…that will turn people away from fascism when they embrace it…and THAT is where we are and really always HAVE BEEN…the last 40 years have shown the Republican endgame…chaos…wars.. recession…racism…ignoring public health…yet the MAJORITY of White voters in this country FULLY embrace those facts as LONG as Blacks/Browns & Women STAY disenfranchised….humane policy dosen’t change that…great strategy dosen’t change that…NOTHING changes that…there are states that will ALWAYS be steeped in political inhumanity…the ONLY thing that will promote consistent positive changes is if ALL registered Dems vote in EACH & EVERY election for Dems instead of getting in their feelings….and THAT has not happened….
And like Republican voters will NEVA let go of facism…too many Dem voters will NEVA get out of their feelings when they don’t get EVERYTHING they want…and instead worship apathy…
This will NOT end well….
“ There is NO POLITICAL ARGUMENT IN THE WORLD…that will turn people away from fascism when they embrace it…”
This 100%. Everything I know about fascism tells me that it’s a waist of time to try to appeal these voters. All we can do is out-vote them, but that requires the active participation of EVERY single Dem voter. Once we relegate the GOP to insignificancy, *then* we’ll have the power to force the Dems towards a more progressive agenda.
It’s a messaging problem because lots of progressive economic issues poll really well across party lines. Universal pre-k, lower drug prices, minimum wage hike, even a public buy in option for medicare are all popular issues. Democrats have to stop allowing the republicans to make unpopular cultural issues the talking points. Democrats have to pivot back to bread and butter issues consistently because they will lose the uneducated whites on culture issues every time. White folks are racist, we know it, and we have to work around it.
Polls seemed to show that white women flipped back to support this guy, especially non college educated white women. So when the Supreme Court guts Roe after the Mississippi case is heard, I wonder if any of these women will regret voting for someone who will remove their right to control their own body all because white kids might be told that being a slave owner was a bad thing.
Wait, Amanda Chase said she had evidence BEFORE the election that there is voter fraud………
I am sure she will be speaking up soon. NOT!
What is disheartening to me is that a person I have never heard of won against a man who was pervious VA gov. Out of no where! The reps won by one percent (from what I see). Dead red state. Damn it VA. How sad.
Lived in VA for 10 years- loved it! I hope this won’t be another Republican governor ignoring health mandates.
Sorry Dee, my experience in VA has been opposite and I still live here. Moved here in late 70s and I cried every night. Backwards is an understatement. Virginians has made steps forward, but still have quite a way to go.
Having worked for a few newspapers, I can tell you almost all of them are owned by Republicans. Reporters are by amd large democrats and I know want to tell the facts, but their articles get shot down or watered down by editors doing the owners bidding. (And the editors are democrats, just too afraid of losing their jobs to stand up to the owner, who would fire them.) Press Rum does a great job showing how the media is failing the US public.
Thank you for this comment. Conservatives have screamed from the rooftops for years about the media’s liberal bias, but it is a much more nuanced and even insidious situation than what people realize. In larger markets, Sarah Kendzior talks about the issue of how inaccessible journalist positions have become for people with working class backgrounds — both in terms of available positions and low pay for what is available — leaving people from wealthier backgrounds to get them. And while these journalists from wealthier backgrounds may view their beliefs as liberal or progressive, they actually tend to be more corporate conservative, which also aligns with what their editors and executive board want.
Phil Murphy needs to win NJ. I voted in NYC straight blue ticket. My candidates won, but I am so PISSED with the Democrats, especially Manchin and Sinema. They need to do a better job. And the fucking media should stop covering MAGA Orange Idiot all the time — it’s like they miss him and want back the hellish drama that he put us through for 4 years. Ugh!!!! I’m in a mood this morning!!!!
This isn’t good for 2022 tbh. When I logged back on Twitter last night to find out what happened first thing I saw was “racism is a hellava drug”. Then I knew. He’s going to send Virginia backwards in time and a lot of people are going to suffer.
Yeah, these brainwashed MAGA idiots aren’t going anywhere, sad to say. The retrumplicans are the biggest threat by far to our democracy, and good luck getting them back to reality. I live in SE Pennsylvania, and while more populous areas are still more heavily Democratic, rural areas are crawling with trump trash. I live in a very rural area, and whilst the woods are lovely, there are far too many trump signs for my liking. As I drive the roads here, I am constantly flipping the bird at all the signs…it disgusts me. I hate that this is where we are as a nation. At this point, we’d be better off split up. I guess that sounds crazy, but I can’t stand having my national identity associated with a bunch of Nazi saluting, knuckle dragging, anti-vaxx, ignorant thugs. Let ’em go somewhere else where they can infect each other with COVID and stupidity. I want nothing to do with them.
Doesn’t look good for 2022, does it? Really, at this point, progressives have only themselves to blame. They don’t want to want to show up for elections, so these are the results. My state just watched three court positions go red for the same reason. All that banging on about BLM and gender pronouns on Twitter didn’t do shit for Minneapolis’ police reform passing or help these trans kids in red states. The sooner they figure that out, the sooner we will start seeing change.
Deleted. Wrong place.
I honestly don’t have a lot of hope. GOP has been building this network of disinfo for decades. Talk radio and Fox, etc. Truck drivers listen to this all day long. It is so engrained. They get in in their churches, social media, etc. They are buying local tv stations and local radio stations. They broadcast crap to latino communities all over the south.
We don’t have hardly any radio personalities. We aren’t buying things to put a liberal slant on news. We don’t have big donors helping up crush them with ads. GOP politicians are like little robots that stay on messaging. Dems are like herding cats. No unified message. They bicker amongst themselves for months. And I get that Mancinema is a lot of that.
They go after local races. GOP put a lot of focus on the state level while we shrug. And by no means do I mean the people on the ground trying to do their best. I mean the disaffected voter that shows up sometimes that has handed them an iron clad majority in the Supreme Court. I had relatives saying “Plug your nose and vote Trump – Supreme Court is all that matters”.
The problems go on and on. Maybe they will overstep on Roe and the pendulum swings back to us.
Election night 2016 I cried all night. Last night and today I’m just numb. Virginia bought the lie last night. God help us, because we are in deep trouble.
Yeah Kaiser, it is a bad day alright, for Virginia and Dems. I am sorry, I tried, I failed. Thanks to all that put out an effort for us. Apologies that I have not had time to read through all of this yet, but I promise I will as soon as I can. I am a Dem and I personally and politically loathe the Trump Kushners, and what the Republicans have become. What comes to my mind initially is this : (please be kind). Bad as this is, we need to treat it as a serious wake up call. Things I think hurt us in this and will if we don’t remedy it: Get it together all of us. And soon. We need to: get the bills passed. F Manchin and Sinema. Get them done. We can work on the other stuff later, if we don’t we are done, end of. No, no one gets everything we want, but this should have gone through and needs to be. NY state and NYC needs to move it on Trump Org and family charges – wth? Seriously. The committee on the January 6th insurrection better step it up too. This should be on TV and out there every day. Seriously, they had Hilary under fire, Clinton for the Monica BJ, Benghazi, heck think even Watergate out there every da, in the press, on TV. We need to do the same to Jan. 6 traitors. Face up to and deal with the voter restriction rules that are and will be put in place. My God. These are just first initial thoughts. I am all for being nice, try to take the high road, etc. but not now. Playtime is over, and the shine is off for the Presidential win for us. This is urgent. We need to get serious, play hardball, stick together and get things done. If we don’t we could lose in 2022 midterms, Trump could (OMG!) actually win again and we will lose our country. Not kidding. Love to all helping, and let’s get moving. I KNOW we are tired and saddened but this is a fight and it’s worth it, lets do it, I beg you, for us all. We can not afford to be smug, complacent or (sadly) above it all and taking the high road with this.
Rise & Shine, you’ve said exactly what I feel but can’t express nearly as well.
It’s exhausting and discouraging to witness what is happening. I don’t have anything useful to add other than it is more important than ever to get out and vote in every election.
The major problems with the Biden Harris administration is that they didn’t do enough to fight the voting suppression bills and audits that many states were implementing; continued to employ many people from the Trump administration(Chris Wray, Durham, CDC employees, DeJoy,18 members of the military advisory board); allowed Manchin and Sinema to hijack every bill and then kept “negotiating”(dwindling bills to almost nothing) with them even while they were openly campaigning with Republicans; not doing anything about the Russians hijacking systems; allowing all those republicans who participated in the insurrection(Hawley, MTG, Cruz, Nunes, Mo Brooks, Gosar) or are being investigated(Matt Geatz)to remain in Congress; allowed the CDC to make questionable decisions(removing mask mandates when there were 5 reported cases of Delta and witnessed how Delta devastated India); allowing the republicans to spread misinformation about the 2020 election, critical race theory, and pandemic; and allowing Desantis and Abbott to turn their states into little Russia.
Durham is running a sham investigation(picking up where Barr left off) against anyone involved with the Steele dossier and the worst thing is that Merrick G is allowing him to falsely indict and arrest people under weak charges. At what point does Biden and Merrick G say enough is enough? Durham isn’t trying to get at the truth, he is just going after Hilary associates to appease Trump and erase his collusion with the Russians. If Biden and Garland don’t shut this down, Trump will definitely be running again in 2024.